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Regular Customer

Standard

I’m a huge creature of habit, like to the point of having an anxiety attack if I vary from my normal spots. Now I’m not talking about every day schedules so to speak, but where I spend my money and where I spend my time. People think I’m nuts because I’ll go out of my way for a good cup of coffee, because my favorite spot is in another town. I’ll drive the next county over to have a beer if the service is good. And as today has proven, I drove another town over, past two different Midas shops to the one I’ve been going to for 7 years, and it paid off.

Regular customers get good treatment. Simple as that!

I went over there yesterday to get an oil change and some light bulbs replaced, and as usual something else was wrong with my car. I walked back into the shop to pick it up and my favorite tech looked at me, in all seriousness said, “Where the hell do you drive your car? Afghanistan?” I just put my head in my hands. Apparently I have a small leak in one tire, a nail in the other (both of which can wait since they’re slow leaks), and a completely shot ball-joint. Not like “it moves too much but you can wait until your next oil change”, more like “You’re going to kill yourself if you drive your car like this.”

Now I know most people think places like this rip you off, but I trust every single tech in there, and even if I didn’t, I’ve been friends with the manager for years, like shots in the back room after work friends. He’s the last mechanic to rip me off. He constantly fixes my car(s) with out charging me labor, and forgetting to charge me for odds and ends (ie: wipers, lights, oil changes).

So back to the ball joint. In Nissan, not only do you have to replace the ball joint but the entire control arm, which there is $483. I looked at the manager and told him I’m fucked. He told me he’d rush order the part and to come in today and we’d figure it out. All in all, I paid $100 today. My car is fixed, and I promised I’d pay him bi-weekly as much as I could, and he let me know, whatever I can afford is good enough for him. So thanks to the lovely guys at Midas, I’m not screwed, my car is saved and I’m a happy camper.

Remember kids, being a regular customer in good standing saves your ass some days. :)

2 thoughts on “Regular Customer”

Damn, now I really wish I could have had you take my car in, too. I can’t find any mechanics around here that aren’t privately-owned joints, and I have no idea the quality of work they do/prices they charge, and no one I’ve asked has had any suggestions for me except for “friends of the family.” Not that I don’t trust my family’s friend’s honesty or capability, but from what I’ve gathered, this would be a “drop your car off at their house and they might get around to it after they get off their day job, but who knows when it’d be finished” type deal. There’s something severely wrong with my car, there’s a nasty grinding in the front passenger side wheel-well, and I’m convinced it’s more than just a shot brake pad/shoe. I honest to God didn’t think I’d make it to work alive this morning. If I’d had more time, I might have turned around and left the car in the driveway and just have driven “my husband’s car” (read: my car that I don’t drive) instead! Thankfully, I’m still alive. Pretty sure I’m not driving it on Monday, though, even though I have an almost hour-long drive to work and that car’s pretty beat, too. ><